When facing a side like OL Lyonnes at their home ground, you can never let your guard down. Chelsea Women took this lesson to the extreme, which made for a rather uneventful first half as the hosts themselves were also very wary of the Blues’ ability to breach through a defence and find a goal in their favour.
With more tired legs in defence on both sides, the second half was much more eventful. Chelsea had two penalty calls retracted by VAR, the first by a weird offside where the player who fouled
Lucy Bronze in the area still got a yellow card. The second one was also debatable as Lauren James didn’t get a reprimand for a foul that had at the very least a weird timing.
Lyon were the better side in front of goal, thus forcing Hannah Hampton to intervene every now and then. She did well when called into action, to the point of injuring herself near the final whistle.
At the end of it, we settled for the goalless draw. Some close shaves at the end of the match could have gone either way, but that was still more of a matter of luck than lack of effort or talent.
- Another start for young Lexi Potter in central midfield.
- Nothing too exciting going on in this first half.
- Much more action in the second one, although all stays nil-nil.
- Better than expected!
- Next up: West Ham away in the Women’s Super League.
- KTBFFH.
